This is one of the best resto builds on yt right now

Despite the heat, a bit of Soup always makes my day! Soup for the soul, as they say!

Getting a notification that you had released an update lifted my spirit more than you’d imagine, there were dark clouds but now the light has shone. Seeing some wrinkled, bent pipes with no future made me laugh - long live the Soup.

Love the Two Ronnies reference :-)

I'm still amazed at your attention to detail! Fair play!

Wonderful photography as usual.

Love the fork handles reference 👍😀

No man will ever know a car more intimately than George and his Esprit.

Great video, George ! Enjoy your humor. thank you.

Red clutch pipe gave me more joy than it should have! 😅

Always entertaining , Thankyou.

*Great work on the animations. Perhaps few viewers appreciate how much extra work and considerable time it takes to make these, but I sure do. Five stars !*

If you want to use old hardware, you can clean and recoat them. Id recommend watching geoffery crocker's video on electroplating

14:44 What I love about your build, is that it truly is a ground up build. So many so-called builds on KZfaq are really just fancy restorations. That is, slapping a new engine new paint custom interior and fancy wheels and bowler! Custom car? Thank you for your attention to detail and dedication

Great work ❤

Its so awesome when it changes from taking things off and cleaning, fixing and repairing to putting things back together and seeing it become its self.

Glad to see progress!

Hey up mate I'm enjoying been back here after nearly two years

This is the second video in a week I've seen a 'mechanic' use a pipe bender. A little trick I learned as an Electrician's apprentice back in the 80's. Put your pipe UNDER the form for these reasons. 1. It's much easier to lift up than pull down. 2. You maximum bend is only limited by roof height. [ at least twice the distance to the floor, long bends, do it outside! ] 3. The brace will be under load before you start pulling, so the pipe will not wobble. Loving the build.

Great stuff George. I know your bead rolling pain, thick walled stainless steel pipe for my defender, nothing would put a bead in it including a bead roller! Had to get a bead welded onto it in the end!!!

i've never forgotten about this build, its orig why i sub'd

I have to say, I chuckled a little when you said it could come together pretty quick now. I don’t doubt your building ability, I just firmly believe in your capacity to find something to improve at every step of the assembly.

AHHH . its coming together ! i cant wait to see the body back on this.

YAH, I did watch da last vid !...and da one before dat and da one before dat GEORGIE!😁 Lovely to see new parts goin' onto the old girl happy fer ya and hope all is goin' well. Cheers from Eastern Canada lad!! 🇨🇦

One of your best regular videos and I've been a viewing subscriber and patron for more than 5 years, love it!! keep it up! I'm getting real excited for this one!

Ahhh George uploads and my day gets better. Always watch your videos mate, I am offended you think otherwise haha

Superb. As always. Lovely camera work, great humour and presentation as well as honest, quality workmanship.

Nice nod to the Two Ronnies

really geat to see progress here because......The sooner this door wedge is finished the sooner we can see the T1N again!

It great to see the car going back together with so much care and attention to details that only you (and us you tube viewers) will know about. Keep up the great work.

Super viewing, its getting exciting G

As always George their can't be good days without bad ones, keep at it you're almost there!!

Such great stuff George, thanks for taking us along with your wins and (delayed win) attempts. Perhaps watch the opening 10 minutes of the 1982 "Conan the Barbarian" to see if there's any advice from Krom about "the secret of aluminium". Couldn't hurt. Best regards brother!

Your pipe bender is lacking a former, that's one reason your getting wrinkles. Ideally you want the bend to start at 90 degrees to the bending arm. A former is like a long square piece of aluminium. With the profile of the pipe on one side, that fits closely inside the cheeks. The tighter you can be to the former gives you nearly the ideal 90 degrees. Usually the bending arm has a screw to move it tight to the former.

A return to (Esprit) form - well done George

I like you are talking about updates later. Stay with and we will stay with you too. Small updates is fun too vs so many channels that chase the next like or share.

I was mad when you posted so early in the day today, that I had to sit through work waiting to race home to watch it!! Another great video. I can't wait for the next part in this brilliant novel!!

Progress can be a bumpy. Like that plated roll bar.

It’s starting to make some real progress folks! Thanks Soup!

The black chassis, red clutch pipework and stop motion really 'pops' in this one George...I now have my blasting cabinet back up and running...its been too long. Tomorrow I am 'home alone' so you can guess what I will be doing to anyhting that rusty I can find!

God, I love your channel!

Good to hear even a seasoned pro like yourself has problems. Have downed tools myself after a failed attempt at just servicing my car tonight ffs . But I did manage to open a beer .....lol😂

When done..,will this be the best Espirit on planet earth 🌍?? As usual, thanks for sharing JT: Orlando FLA 😎👍

9:15 I usually use lighter gas with the bottle upside down to freeze them even more. It being the cheap option versus a real cold spray. It's very oddly satisfying feeling when the bearing just slides in the housing.

I could watch another hour of that but appreciate how long it takes to create an episode so will just have to wait. Well done and good progress.

I always enjoy your videos. Keep up the good work!

Dude man, I’m not easily impressed but this is by far the coolest build I’ve seen. You do so much figuring out and doing yourself, when others just buy parts and bolt them on!

Schwiiing 😃 -flasback

It's getting exciting as it comes together.

Ooosh. Getting exciting now (Not that it hasn't been anyway). Black and Red perfection. :D

George, you haven't failed. You've found several methods that don't work. Love the Wayne's World and the Two Ronnies references. Yes I did see the previous episode because I saw you employ the late great Colin Chapman's philosophy of adding lighness with the gear linkage.

Can’t wait to see the rolling chassis built up. Keep up the great work!

Brilliant love the animations cracking content👍

Had one of these S1 restored all by myself… a ton of work as the build quality was… well, approximative to say the least… later bought a S2.2 from a collectionner… I was driving my Esprits during winter in snow, rain, that’s an adventure and only fun when you are young and brave. Still think the Giugiaro Esprit is a really interesting car… when you are young and love tinkering… oh and don’t forget the electrics are Lucas = The Prince of Darkness… 😂

Those easy jobs that take a minute to finish are normally killing me. But you have skills and this happens? On a serious note: great channel on a great car!

Nice podjekt of at car with history...👍👍👍😁

Soot. Use a sooty flame to cover the pipe in soot. When the soot burns off, aluminium is ready to bend.

Mandel Bender is the nicest way to bend ally pipe, with no gatorbacks

Yessss finaly.. and posters?

Lotus Elise is my favorite car. Not Ferrari, Not Lambo, Not even Porsche! I'm blessed with an obtainable vehicle. It started with Grieco, then Bond, and then Bond again. It's the love of the person who created such a beauty by hand.

need more...

To put a frozen bearing into a heated part, the heated part needs to be put into an oven at 200c for at least 1/2 hour. Honestly for the frozen bearing, you should use dry ice to cool the bearings. I have done this over 100 times in my work.

Those pipes must’ve been bent hydraulically originally. I could feel your pain trying to get them bent again.

AAARRRRGGGHHHHH NEED MORE VIDEO NOW!!!!!!

I have a 1978 Eclat 521 with 907 engine, also in white. Such a wonderfully analog car with a beautiful design (Oliver Winterbottom) to own. Fun facts...the Morris Marina was lucky enough to feature Lotus door handles! Ford Capris were also performance-enhanced with Lotus handbrakes! Or have I got that the wrong way around???

Made me laugh. Good stuff.

Polyurethane bushings will squeak after a couple of years. I have read it you use PTFE tape on split type bushes it will never squeak. On a one piece you could glue a peice of ptfe on to the part and use lots of washing up liquid to slide the bush on

Bluey référence!

Getting impatient. Want to see a rolling chassis ;-)

That pipe bender is a really loud machine

Do you like the W211 E200K as a daily driver? Been thinking of getting one...

Annealing aluminum some tricky business.

Freeze both parts and it just might slide in, its a common misconception that the hole needs heat, its the opposite, you need both parts to contract. Theres even a contraction rate for every metle per temp drop.

:)

Four candles, handle for forks 😂😂

A tip of the hat to The Two Ronnie's. I see what you did.

I remember the early episodes with this car, thinking you were spending far too long with the chassis. I was wrong. It looks amazing. This car win stop traffic dead when it’s finally on the road.

4 candles

What does the sand do?

The sand does nothing. The theory is it'll stop the tube collapsing because it's non compressible. Nut when you bend tube you're stretching one side and shrinking the other. The wrinkles are a by product of the tube not being able to shrink enough. So you have excess material there and the sand is loose in the tube anyway. The only way to bend thin wall is with a mandrel or heat.

Where djew get that bucket of sand??? 😉

:o)❤

you used the wrong kind of sand! You need to go with the special Mandrel Sand!

Weren’t there 2 models in the 70’s. We had a white 2 seater with I think beige interior. Why i never took photos i dont know. Had a Morgan +4 too. All sorts of cars but they are trying to get us out of cars in Calif, So an Espirit & a ????? Cant see another name listed!

Schwing or in Sweden schwijergen...

6:21 "Do you want me to stop?" Busted! You ran out.. If you had any more you wouldn't have blinked before dropping them too! We know you too well by now :P Shame about the alu pipe. I've heard many times bending alu is a skill that lives in the borderland between witchcraft and science.

Why not buy pre made bends? It isn't always sensible to make everything yourself

I am stating the obvious, but I hope your putting a bit of non permanent loctite on those nuts so they don't work themselves loose.

I don’t think you should paint it green. White is a better choice.

Why is it everything fights you along the way, surely they didn't have to put up with this struggle on the production line 😮 Maybe they did and that's why they took so long to make 🙄 I did an alternator on a Citroën grand picasso and it only took me 2 day's 🙄

no, don't stop. that was an impressively eloquent stream of punny, punny commentary

this BS with putting Sand into the Tubes NEVER works... I went through the same thing ans learned it the hard way.

C'mon....... don't reuse any of that crusty coolant pipe......😬

Just replace those threw body aluminium pipes with copper pipe they will outlast the rest of the car and you can bend them on that pipe bender with ease 😂

Green? Please don’t paint it green!!!!!

George - see extract from my Elite Blog on the forum: Nice shiny new bearings installed - thanks to @clivef38 for the top tip. Hub carriers in the oven for an hour at 100 deg c whilst bearings chill in the freezer. Bearings then popped straight in without the need to press or anything :) Was originally planning to press them in but getting/finding something to only push on the outer bearing wall was tricky. This really did work much more effectively than I'd imagined. I did wear a pair of 400 degree heat proof gloves though (very effective for only £12). Just got to grease up with high heat grease and fit seals and we are good to go! Nice shiny new bearings installed - thanks to @clivef38 for the top tip. Hub carriers in the oven for an hour at 100 deg c whilst bearings chill in the freezer. Bearings then popped straight in without the need to press or anything :) Was originally planning to press them in but getting/finding something to only push on the outer bearing wall was tricky. This really did work much more effectively than I'd imagined. I did wear a pair of 400 degree heat proof gloves though (very effective for only £12). Just got to grease up with high heat grease and fit seals and we are good to go!